Monday, March 29, 2010

Note from the range:

I experienced a strange malf with my Mk.III 22/45 yesterday.

Towards the end of the range session, the trigger began to behave oddly. The break was mushy, and the round didn't go off. I ran the bolt, and got the same thing. I ran the bolt twice more, emptying the mag, and the gun refused to discharge on either try; it felt as though the gun wasn't staying cocked, and the primers showed no marks, although something must've been happening to reset the trigger.

When I removed the magazine and reloaded to continue trying to diagnose it, the problem disappeared. I suspect the mag safety.

Who here has successfully disabled the infernal device by replacing lockwork parts with Mk.II bits?

19 comments:

It's been mentioned by a couple of people in recent discussions over at Jay G's blog - he's looking for a good .22 pistol, and the Mk III is one of the candidates.

Go to this post over there. Commenter Mopar (last comment) mentions that he has done this. He gives a little more detail in the third comment at this earlier post, and a couple of other commenters mention doing the same thing.

I haven't looked, but I bet you can find a how-to somewhere with a google search, too.

I recently bought a MkIII. Before taking it out for the first time, I removed the LCI device and bought a $10 bushing to eliminate the mag safety, effectively turning it into a MkII. I essentially De-Kalifornified it. It's run through over 1,000rds now without a hiccup.

Since the mag safety has something to do with- wait for it- the mag, I wonder if it's the interrelation between the plastic parts and the metal pieces of the mag safety that cause the issue? I haven't had one that far apart but it certainly sounds like it might be a fouling issue; I'd be very interested in what you discover.

You can buy the replacement bushing, or if you're a cheapskate like me, two 7/16 washers trimmed down with a file work well.

From what I can tell by looking at the design, the only thing pushing up on the disconnect bar is the spring in the trigger. Since the the junk the mag safety adds in between the hammer and the disconnect bar can drag on it I can see that causing you fail-to-fire.

A guy at the range I frequent had weird problems with his. Every round would take two trigger pulls to fire. The first nothing would happen, no click, no primer strike no bang. Second pull the round would go off. He finally deleted the mag safety and his problems went away.

If you can't remove the mag safety for what ever reason you might have luck just putting in a stiffer spring in the trigger.

Jake, thanks for posting the link to my comments over at Jay's.Arthur links to the washer method of removing the mag disconnect. I preferred doing it with all factory parts so I just replaced the hammer bushing with one from a MkII (cost: $5) and tossed the disconnect parts in the trash. Ideally I would have used a MkII hammer as well, but that was not available from Ruger and I've heard mixed reviews about the volquartsen hammer. The way I did it is detailed on this thread: http://guntalk-online.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=634

Tam: Sounds like you have a worn sear?

I have experienced the exact same problem as you describe. I found that when it happened, if I squeezed the trigger a second time HARD, it would fire. This problem started as soon as I replaced the stock Ruger sear with a target sear from volquartsen. I did not buy the whole "accurizing" kit, since many parts I didnt want or cant use on the 22/45. The adjustable trigger was/is backordered (I want the silver one like stock, black one was in stock) so I havent done that yet. Best we've been able to tell my problem is that the target sear has a slightly different geometry then the stock sear and requires a slight adjustment of the trigger to function 100% of the time except I don't yet have the adjustable trigger installed. In your case since you havent changed anything perhaps the stock sear is just worn down or dirty?

I think I know why your MkII malfunctioned. For years the CIA have been able to manipulate the tectonics plates with a machine that they have buried underneath Area 51. It was designed to provide an elliptical electromagnetic field that alters functioning of certain metals and also has an "unintentional" side effect of mind control. These waves can only be blocked by the use of layers of aluminum foil packed inside a football helmet. I believe this field (along with controlling your mind) has malfunctioned your weapon. My remedy is for you to pack as much tin foil into your MkII and set it on fire. Be quick about it, they are watching.....

Your firearm activation chip has probably lost it's charge. Report to the nearest federal universal chartering hub to have it replaced, and don't forget to submit the paperwork for the activation serial number change on all your firearms. Oh, and don't forget to prep for a few days downtime, the conscript surgeons are getting rougher every day. You should be back to shooting in just a couple weeks.